After more than a quarter century as the head of the company, Ken Bell is retiring from his role as President of The Dollywood Company with effect of December 2012. Dolly Parton’s theme park as well as Dollywood’s Splash Country waterpark evolved to (...) read more
Roland Mack (CEO Europa-Park), outgoing chairman of the board of directors of IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions), draws a positive balance at the end of his one year term as president of the international (...) read more
Copenhagen’s Tivoli has just announced the construction of a 1,200 square meter large new theme area for 2013. The new area is planned to be opened for the next season’s beginning in April and feature topics like galaxies, planets and stars. Around (...) read more
It is said to become the biggest project after the construction of the Olympic Park in London and rival Disneyland Resort Paris. According to British media reports the site’s developer, London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), has been granted a (...) read more
Thomas Glisin operates the “Bobbolino” indoor play complex in the city of Rath near Dusseldorf, Germany. Now Glisin has his sights set on the disused property of Neurath’s wave pool, where he plans to build a play park based on the highly successful (...) read more
Some five kilometers away from Hundertwasser-Therme in Bad Blumau, Austria, plans are moving forward to build a massive, 260,000 square meter greenhouse operation for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. The costs for the ambitious agricultural (...) read more
In 2013, Borken, Germany is set to receive Germany’s very first senior citizen amusement park at the site of a former brown coal firing station that was shut down in 1988. Much of the park’s focus will be on a sort of “Journey Down Memory Lane”, (...) read more
Germany’s Phantasialand in Brühl has been negotiating with local authorities about expansion areas for years. Yesterday the park presented a new plan for a possible expansion until 2015. The new plan envisages new investments and restructurings on a (...) read more
Built in 1896 and suffering from financial troubles for years, the struggling amusement park in the heart of the Hungarian capital city definitely closed at the start of November. The last move by its municipal administration owners was only their (...) read more
John McReynolds has been elected third vice chairman of the IAAPA Board of Directors. His career in the amusement industry began in 1995 when McReynolds joined the team of Universal Orlando as government relations manager. In 2007 he was promoted to (...) read more
The Guinness Book of World Records is always popular, and the most idiotic records attain significant media attention creating publicity, publicity, publicity! What recently happened in front of 8,000 visitors at French amusement park Futuroscope (...) read more
The spa at Bad Radkersburg, Austria is located in actual sight of the Austrian-Slovenian border and is currently entwined in a tricky situation: Only some 300 meters away from the spa facility just on the Slovenian side of the border, Slovenian (...) read more
It has recently been announced that the EU has long been a sponsor of an amusement park planned for Morocco, already having invested more than one million Euros. French vacation park concern Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs is the primary shareholder (...) read more
Last week, the must-attend event for the industries of waterparks, swimming pools, saunas and spas, the interbad 2012, was held in Stuttgart, Germany. The international trade show took place from 9 to 12 October 2012 at Messe Stuttgart. Over 500 (...) read more
Andreas Veilstrup Andersen, president and CEO of Liseberg, launches a new roller coaster for 2014 - longer and faster than any other coaster in the park. Projekt Helix – that’s the name of the new one – will be the park's biggest investment ever. (...) read more
This year’s Euro Attractions Show (EAS), Europe’s largest trade show for the attractions industry, welcomed more than 8,100 visitors in Berlin (official figures have not been communicated yet) – a new visitor record! More than 350 exhibitors from (...) read more
In mid-September, Tenerife’s Siam Park celebrated its 2nd anniversary. Siam Park, by many referred to as Europe’s most beautiful themed waterpark, was opened in the South of the Canary Island in September 2008 and inaugurated by the Thai Princess (...) read more
Halloween is close! In Germany and other European countries theme and amusement parks are organizing special Halloween events and attractions, whereas in the US there is a professional haunted attraction industry with attractions only operating (...) read more
At the beginning of this month, Lo-Q, provider of virtual queuing systems for theme and water parks, announced to have signed a partnership agreement with the Australian Sanderson Group. The aim of this partnership is to spearhead Lo-Q’s expansion (...) read more
„Yukon Bay“, the seventh themed area at Hanover’s Adventure Zoo, was opened in 2010 and has invited visitors to a Canada-inspired landscape since then (cf. EAP 4/2010). In “McKenzies Robbenshow” (McKenzie’s seal show) visitors get to know everything (...) read more
